Rabbi and Rebbetzin’s Corner March 2023
By Eric Carlson on March 1, 2023
Shalom Mishpocha,
The month of March has arrived! The days are getting warmer and longer! Spring (Vernal Equinox) officially arrives on March 20th, 2023 at 5:24 PM. Spring is a month of transition both seasonally and annually as the biblical new year begins this month according to Exodus:
Exodus 12:1-3 ADONAI spoke to Moshe and Aharon in the land of Egypt; he said, 2 “You are to begin your calendar with this month; it will be the first month of the year for you. 3 Speak to all the assembly of Isra’el and say, ‘On the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb or kid for his family, one per household
The 1st of Nisan, New Year’s Day begins Wednesday March 22nd, 2023 at sunset! The New Year restarts the annual Feast Days Cycle (Moedim) with the celebration of Pesach in the month of April. The New Year also marks the end of the “Shemitah” year so till your gardens and get planting! The spring renewal is the season of new beginnings and awakenings.
Exodus 40:1-3 ADONAI said to Moshe, 2 “On the first day of the first month, you are to set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting. 3 Put in it the ark for the testimony, and conceal the ark with the curtain.
In ancient Israel, from the first time the Tabernacle/Mishkan was erected through the time period of the Second Temple, the New Year was celebrated as God ordained on Nisan 1st.
Exodus 40:33-35 Finally, he erected the courtyard around the tabernacle and the altar and set up the screen for the entrance to the courtyard. 34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of ADONAI filled the tabernacle. 35 Moshe was unable to enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud remained on it, and the glory of ADONAI filled the tabernacle.
The First day of the New Year was when the Mishkan was set up and all Israel witnessed the transfer of God’s Glory, His Divine Presence, as experienced from afar, hovering over Mt. Sinai move to hovering over the Mishkan, directly among the people. This day for the fledgling nation of Israel is when God became personal, real, and up close. The first of Nisan is when God’s Glory descends upon the earth!
This is a time for a celebration and a time of preparation, New beginnings. It’s the time to begin thinking about Pesach and to start removing the Chametz from our homes, the old leaven, the sins of last year. Isn’t God great in His detail, in the New Year He has us cleaning house! Adonai Commands us to observe His New Year:
Deuteronomy 16:1 Observe the month of Aviv, and keep Pesach to ADONAI your God; for in the month of Aviv, ADONAI your God brought you out of Egypt at night.
The Hebrew is very interesting: Shamor et-chodesh ha’Aviv “Observe the month of Aviv. Shamor’s root word is Shamam: Guard, we are ordered to guard/safeguard the head of the month of the new year Aviv. It’s the Key to God’s prophetic timeline and schedule of global events!
What we are really doing by submitting to and following God’s calendar is alignment, it’s aligning or synchronizing ourselves with God’s calendar and timeline in both our current worlds and in the world to come. This synchronization is the key component to prophecy and eschatology, it defines where God is at in His scripture, according to His timeline! He commands us to safeguard, protect, observe His calendar, to remember the head of the New Year! This divine alignment is for both Jew and Gentile as revealed in Ruth’s (Gentile) relationship to Naomi (Jew):
Ruth 1:16-17 But Rut said, “Don’t press me to leave you and stop following you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. 17 Where you die, I will die; and there I will be buried. May ADONAI bring terrible curses on me, and worse ones as well, if anything but death separates you and me.”
Here is the powerful and supernatural result of proper alignment with Adonai, His Kingdom, and His calendar:
Ruth 2:10-11. She fell on her face, prostrating herself, and said to him, “Why are you showing me such favor? Why are you paying attention to me? After all, I’m only a foreigner.” 11 Bo’az answered her, “I’ve heard the whole story, everything you’ve done for your mother-in-law since your husband died, including how you left your father and mother and the land you were born in to come to a people about whom you knew nothing beforehand.
The Biblical New Year begins at the appearance of the first “new moon” after the Vernal or Spring Equinox. This year, as I mentioned earlier, March 20th is the Spring Equinox. The New Moon this month (Rosh Chodesh) is March 22nd, 2023 at sunset. Equinox is from the Latin word “equi” which means equal. Twice a year the earth is on the same plane as the sun, neither leaning towards or away from the sun. Equinox happens twice a year, Vernal or spring and Autumnal or fall Equinox. Biblically this new moon is called KSH Keseh or the veiled moon, Keseh the root word of Rosh Hashanah. New Year is the moon that separates the years and is mentioned in the Psalms, both the calculation of the new year and the celebration of it:
Psalms 81:1-6 (CJB) (1) Sing for joy to God our strength! Shout to the God of Ya‘akov! 3 (2) Start the music! Beat the drum! Play the sweet lyre and the lute! 4 (3) Sound the shofar at Rosh-Hodesh and at full moon for the pilgrim feast, 5 (4) because this is a law for Isra’el, a ruling of the God of Ya‘akov. 6 (5) He placed it as a testimony in Y’hosef when he went out against the land of Egypt. I heard an unfamiliar voice say,
Psalm 81 is describing a celebration, Music, Drum, Lyre and Lute, and Sounding of the Shofar! This Psalm directly connects the celebration of the New Year to the first month of the year as biblically prescribed in Exodus 12. This Moon also marks the Rosh Chodashim (ראשׁ חֳדָשִׁים), “the head of the months,” Observing Rosh Chodashim is considered the very first commandment given to Israel before the great Exodus from Egypt took place. The Order to Observe Shabbat came in Exodus 16! One can’t keep Shabbat or the Moedim, the Feasts if one doesn’t know when to begin! This month shall be unto you the beginning of months:
Exodus 12:2 You are to begin your calendar with this month; it will be the first month (Rosh Chodashim) of the year (R’ishon Chodashim) for you.
In the both Scriptures and the Mishna there are various names given to “this month,” including the following: Chodesh Ha-Aviv (חדֶשׁ הָאָבִיב), “the month of spring,” so named because it marked the time of the Exodus from Egypt.
Exodus 13:3-4 Moshe said to the people, “Remember this day, on which you left Egypt, the abode of slavery; because ADONAI, by the strength of his hand, has brought you out of this place. Do not eat hametz. 4 You are leaving today, in the month of Aviv.
Within this same thought process, the month of Nisan is also referred to as Chodesh ha-Yeshua, the “month of salvation”. This can be viewed and understood in both the Physical: Israel was physically delivered from Slavery in Egypt in the month of Nisan and Spiritually; The Salvation for both Israel and the world from the slavery of Sin occurred in the same month through the Messiah who was born on the 1st of Nisan!! Happy Birthday Yeshua!!! Yeshua was also crucified on the stake 14 days from the New Year in the same month of Pesach! What’s revealed in all of this is a heavenly ordained Cycle of Time. A never-ending repetitive circle that can be repetitive but never identical!
Therefore, it’s quite clear to us that God see’s this month, Aviv or Nisan as the Month of redemption or Chodesh HaGeulah in Hebrew. The Babylonian Talmud written in the Babylonian Diaspora or captivity gives a profound Messianic Statement over 400 years before the birth of Yeshua: “In Nisan our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt and in Nisan we will be redeemed.” This can be seen in the Hebrew language itself. The Hebrew word for “year” – shanah – shares the same root as both the word “repeat” Shenen and the word “change” Sheenoo.
The “New Year” and Feast Day Cycle is one of “repetition” in the Hebrew is Mishnah which means to study by repetition. Mishnah has the same root word “shanah. To Mishnah, study, to review the history of Israel as recorded in scripture”. The years Moedim and feast day cycles are an all-inclusive “study and review” of the key historical and prophetic events of the redemptive history of Israel. We repeat and relive these events to bring heavens pattern into our present world and our lives in order to prepare and rehearse for the future! At Pesach a year ago the Spirit Realm radically shifted, now we are entering into another New Year! The year of fulfillment!
The need to Shamor or guard the biblical new year and associated feasts and cycles becomes crystal clear. The cycle is repetitive yet not identical from year to year as we stream towards the return of Messiah and the establishment of God’s timeline upon the earth and all humanity! The seed of redemption and salvation has already been sown, we need only to study and review the calendar to see what it will look like and when it will happen!
May we end the Shemitah year of 5782 with a grateful, thankful heart! Adonai has kept us and sustained us through a difficult year! Let us start the new year of 5783 with trust and shalom! Let us transition into the New Year in alignment with Adonai’s Kingdom, knowing He loves you and wants the best for you. Let’s pray and focus in the New Year upon intimacy with Adonai in Yeshua! Let us move into the New Year with a humble, contrite heart through repentance, transformation, and renewing our minds. Heavenly Father, thank You for making all things new! We trust in You along because we know that Your grace is not exhausted, that Adonai’s compassion has not ended. On the contrary, they are new every morning! How great your faithfulness, nothing ahead in this New Year will take us by surprise. We will trust in You, Adonai, forever, because You are our Rock of Ages.
From our family to your, may you have a blessed and supernatural New Year!